newbegin4

Once your marriage is registered at the local Amphur (District Office) and you can meet the financial requirements, you can change (convert) your tourist visa into a non-immigrant visa and then get a 1 year extension of stay based on marriage from immigration. In order to change your visa status you should have least 21 days remaining on your permission to stay. If you are using the 400,000 baht cash in a Thai bank route there is a 60 or 90 day, depending on the immigration office, seasoning period for the money. So as you can see, things can get tight.

Also, once your marriage is registered in Thailand, you can easily get a Non-Immigrant Visa from a local Thai Embassy or Consulate. So no need to return to the US.

In my case, we have the option of showing that the spouse has the financial wherewithal to qualify for the support. I can also qualify using 2007 and 2008 tax returns, but for 2009, currently I am temporarily under-employed (hence the possible need to rely on the wife's finances).

Anyway, sounds reasonably straightforward.

Hello,

I'm moving to Udonthani in August to get married to my Thai fiancee. What are my visa options in regards to Type O? I will be arriving on a 90 day tourist visa. I'm a U.S. citizen and 40 years old.

From the marriage date forward, how long will a Type O take? Will I have to leave the country (returning to the U.S. will be burdonsome)?

Any pitfalls I should look out for?

Thanks to anyone who has been there, done that! I appreciate your advice.

A serious reply would be helpful!

Hello, I'm interested in getting an Educational Visa as I'll be staying in Udonthani. Are there any Thai Language schools offering Educational Visas in Udonthani?

SKYPE is what I use. $0.021 per minute for both landlines and mobile phones in the US.

If any of your customers also use SKYPE then you can talk for free.

You can also set up a US number that your customers can call and it will go either to your SKYPE phone or can even be forwarded to your mobile in Thailand.

Key point... get the fastest internet connection available. I use 1 meg and rarely have problems, but the faster the better.

Well I considered VoIP, I use Vonage now, but from everything I have read here on these forums, the internet is not reliable enough for making good quality voice calls overseas to customers (can't have dropped calls, and other problems). I'd love to be wrong....

So a landline is my preferred option and I'd appreciate hearing feedback from others on this forum, thanks! How is traditional landline telephone working for you guys in terms of price, voice quality and reliability?

I make a lot of business calls, and if I move to Thailand to be with my fiance, I'll have to be on the phone a lot back to the states. During my earlier, and first, trip to Thailand, I borrowed a cell phone and it was 4 baht per minute (I think) and the quality/realiability was not very good.

Aside from the hassle of getting a traditional landline phone, would it be a better option as far as economics and quality are concerned?

I'll be in the Udonthani area. Recomendations and approximate cost info would be highly appreciated, thanks!

rreddin, welcome to the thread.

You and I seem to have the same problem. We need guaranteed international bandwidth (for reliable VoIP telephone calls - I need at least). I can't seem to make heads or tails of the options on the following site: http://www.inet.co.th. Reads very poorly in English with sparse technical details. It is easy for the provider's advertising to promise the world as far as internal Thailand bandwidth guarantees are concerned, but I don't see any guarantees on international bandwidth. Anyone have direct experience with this?

Here is the pricing: http://www.inet.co.th/inetweb/price.jsp?id=307

Doesn't seem too promising!

I'm currently researching whether or not I can combine 2 or 3 residential internet services (i..e ADSL, Cable and/or wireless) to aggregate the 3 connections into a single virtual connection. If this works great! But I've only just begun to research. More later. Hopefully that will allow the international bandwidth pipe to open up enough for mission-critical VoIP and other applications. Or maybe even this is not practical. I won't know until I know I guess.

Thanks for the replies, but she says "I will not get married under Thai law". I didn't ask why and I'm not going to.

So that being the case, does anybody know if it is possible to get married at the U.S. embassy?

Has anybody gotten married elsewhere outside of the United States, i.e. a military base or a U.S. documented vessel in international waters?

How would I make this work?

Thank you all!

Hi, my fiancee and I want to have our ceremony in Thailand but formally sign the marriage documents under U.S. law, not Thai law. Is it possible to get married at a U.S. Embassy or consulate (it is sovereign U.S. soil I understand). If not, how about aboard a U.S. flagged ship (perhaps just out far enough to be in international waters)? Any other creative options, short of dealing with a K-1 visa and the expense of flying to some U.S. territory?

P.S. not sure where else to post this, so I put here.

There is a device that can bundle multiple adsl lines load-balancing and redundancy. But then if your exchange goes down

Ok, great...that is a start. Can you recall what the device is called? How about that device bundling other connections such as wireless or cable broadband?

Finally, what did you mean by 'exchange' in "if your exchange goes down" (sorry I really am not that geeky). Thanks!!!

Really, the heart of the matter is the international pipeline. Anybody have a business in the Udonthani area that has found a solution to the international pipeline issue? i.e. a call center using VoIP?

http://www.adslthailand.com/forum/viewtopi...=14&t=13487

This help?

Thanks but not really.

I'm not concerned with internet bandwidth 'within' Thailand, only 'international' bandwith which in my case means between Udonthani, Thailand and the U.S. as a whole.

What are my options? When I move to Udonthani next year, it is critical that I have a reliable, fast international internet connection. Based on skimming some of the posts here, it appears that this is difficult, if not flat-out impossible! If so then I have a huge obstacle to overcome, one that might likely derail my hope of living in Thailand with my Thai spouse (in other words seriously change my life for the worse).

Upload speed it most critical as sometimes (actually daily) I will need to upload a 20+ mb file to a U.S. server. Rest of the time, I need to have reliable VoIP phone service.

Is anyone successfully using VoIP, such as Vonage to make lots of calls to the U.S.?

Short of leasing a dedicated line, what can I do? I am even open to far-fetched ideas like having multiple internet accounts and somehow electronically splicing them together to create a faster (hopefully reliable) service (once upon a time this was done in with ISDN???? - if I am not mistaken - but it was 10 years since I've heard of the practice)?

If I have to lease my own dedicated international pipeline (i.e. T1???) then how much would it be (I tremble with fear to learn the cost of this)?

Also I will have to be in the Udonthani area because that is where my spouse will work.

I've budgeted $250 USD a month for this. Anything over $500 USA a month would really make it extremely hard to manage.

Thanks for any and all help!

Ok, thanks! My questions have been answered. I appreciate the help!

Ok, I've done some research on work permits. Seems I can't get one period unless there is a sponsoring company.

So that leaves 2 choices, a foreign-owned company (that I set up) or a thai-owned company (for my spouse to set up).

It appears that a foreign-owned company cannot set up short of a 1 million baht capital investment (someone correct me if there is a way around this).

I can't find anything about the requirements for a Thai spouse setting up her own company. Can someone give me a basic list of requirements that my spouse would have to meet in order to legally establish a company that can sponsor a work permit?

Thank you very much!

Thanks everybody! It would be hard to put up much (if any) capital beyond purchasing a personal computer in Thailand. The U.S. corporation (my employer) is my own so I have no hope of it ever 'financing' the Thai capital requirements (nor employing 4 - let alone any - Thai employees). My business is simply an internet-based home business (and is not one of the Thai reserved occupations). All my customer interactions can be handled via phone/email.

Today, I'm going to try Googling to find a copy of the Thai work permit application and supporting instructions and see if there is anyway I can obtain one of those 'virtually impossible' exceptions. I really want to at least try.

My fiancée has family obligations in Thailand and it would be difficult for her to come live with me in the U.S. for the immediate future. Hence, my willingness to uproot and go live with her for a few years. I really want to find a way to be together.

Ok, financially the minimum capitalization requirements (as I understand them to be 2 million baht) are simply not feasible.

I do wish to be legal. Suppose my Thai fiancee and I marry first. Does this offer up any other options(probably none I gather)?

My fiance is very smart business-wise, could she employee a foreigner (me) herself (to sponsor my work-permit?) and not have to meet the capitialization requirements? She in turn (her company) would resell my services directly to the U.S. corporation? Can Thai citizens conduct business directly with overseas entities as (what we in the U.S. call) a sole-proprietorship or, if not, through a corporation set up under her ownership?

I don't need to own anything, or be a partner, business-wise in Thailand.

Thank you!

Hello,

Situation:

- 39 year-old U.S. Citizen.

- Considering living in Thailand (Udonthani area) with Thai fiance/spouse.

- Duration: 2 to 5 years.

My initial areas of concern:

1) What visa option is best

2) What employment-related issues arise with following facts:

a. I wish to continue my employment with U.S. based employer, via simple telephone/email.

b. No Thai office required at the moment (simply work from home)

3) Tax implications (i.e. I don't understand the U.S./Thai tax treaty)

4) Other issues I should be aware of??? (please suggest)

Thank you all,